NO NEWS (February 1, 2018)Is good news? No, afraid not. "Life" (with a capital 'L') has been interfering a lot with my writing over the past few months. But fear not, I'll soon be back in the saddle again! So continue to keep a weather eye out for that WAYWARD MARINER, and other further Adventures & Tales!

DIXIE ISLAND (May 15, 2017)~ The next Storm Ketchum Tale (#4) is available! It's priced at 99 cents on all e-book platforms. The print book is $4.99 at Amazon.​~ I'm back in the saddle again! Keep a weather eye out for THE WAYWARD MARINER, the next Storm Ketchum Tale!

The PORT OF REFUGE Audiobook is Here! (March 22, 2017)~ And that completes the audiobook trilogy! PORT STARBIRD and THE PORT FEE are also available in audiobook format, and all three books can be found at Amazon/Audible and Apple iTunes. If you like audiobooks, give them a try!~ An added bonus - in case you didn't know, if you've already bought the e-book, the audiobook is dirt cheap at Amazon!

CORA'S TREE (February 25, 2017)~ The next Storm Ketchum Tale (#3) is available! It's priced at 99 cents on all e-book platforms. The print book is $4.99 at Amazon.​~ I'm back in the saddle again! Keep a weather eye out for DIXIE ISLAND, the next Storm Ketchum Tale!

THE SAD BLUE BOAT (February 4, 2017)~ The next Storm Ketchum Tale (#2) is finally available! It's priced at 99 cents on all e-book platforms. The print book is $4.99 at Amazon.~ FYI, I decided to write a series of short stories (like AN OLDE CHRISTMAS CAROL, which is Tale #1) for now, in lieu of another full-length Storm Ketchum Adventure. I'm planning six stories altogether, which I hope to complete by June. But don't worry, I'll do another proper book eventually!~ Meanwhile, keep a weather eye out for CORA'S TREE, the next Storm Ketchum Tale.

Free E-Books in Exchange for Reviews (December 17, 2016)PORT OF REFUGE and THE PORT FEE need more Amazon reviews. So if you'd like a free e-book copy of either book (or both) in exchange for posting an honest review on Amazon, please e-mail me.

New & Ongoing Reader List Signup Contest (December 17, 2016)I've decided to try again with the $100 Amazon gift card - but this time, it will only be awarded if and when I meet my signup goal. And if that happens, I'll do it again, and again and again! What the heck, why not? So if you haven't signed up yet, take a chance!

New Covers (November 26, 2016)I decided to create new covers for both the e-books and the paperbacks. Hopefully they're a little more eye-catching - especially to the eyes of certain premium and highly selective paid advertising sites, which so far haven't shown much interest in the books. We'll see how that goes... Meanwhile, I like the new covers better anyway, even if they don't accomplish their primary goal. I hope you do, too!

​Signup Giveaway! (August 10, 2016)When you subscribe to my reader list, you'll be able to choose a FREE E-BOOK - and you'll be automatically entered in a drawing to win a $100 Amazon gift card! Go to the bottom of just about any page to sign up. The gift card will be awarded when the signup goal is met, or around Christmas time, whichever happens first.​

Reader List Signup Contest Winner (June 2, 2016)The winner of the contest is... (drum roll)... Lana Kortchik! She has yet to choose her prize (a Kindle Fire or a $50 Amazon gift card), but I expect she will soon. Congratulations, Lana, and thanks for signing up!​

Hallelujah! THE PORT FEE is finally done! (May 26, 2016)Well, almost - lots of little publishing-related details to attend to now. I also sent an email to the Advance Reviewers, with a link for posting your reviews. The e-book and the paperback will both launch on June 1. Here's the public announcement I posted:

THE PORT FEE: PRE-ORDER NOW FOR JUNE 1 DELIVERY! The Kindle version of my new Storm Ketchum Adventure, THE PORT FEE, is now available for pre-order. You can pick it up for th...e low introductory price of $0.99, but don't delay - that price will only be good through launch day (June 1). Here's the link: http://bit.ly/1NF2Cj4 Good guys and bad guys, boating and diving, a dash of romance, and a mysterious otherworldly presence all come together in THE PORT FEE, Ketch's most challenging adventure to date. Act now, and join Ketch and his Kinnakeet Boatyard friends for another engaging and quirky adventure in the picturesque Outer Banks of North Carolina! COMING SOON: This e-book will also be available on non-Kindle platforms (Nook, Kobo, Apple, etc.).

​News from PORT STARBIRD! (April 20, 2016)~ THE PORT FEE is almost done! I'm targeting end of May for publication.~ I'm starting a promotion to help motivate people to sign up for my reader list. A Kindle Fire or $50 Amazon gift card (winner's choice) will be awarded on June 1.~ PORT OF REFUGE still needs more reviews, and the contest described on my subscriber page is still active. Sign up for details if you'd like to participate!​

A Sneak Peek at THE PORT FEE (February 21, 2015)~ As a perk of signing up for my reading list, subscribers gain access to my subscribers-only page, where some special things occasionally happen.~ One of those special things is, you can now read some early chapters of THE PORT FEE, my current WIP (work-in-progress). The complete book will be published later in the spring. Meanwhile, you can get a taste of it if you sign up (which you can do at the bottom of most of my webpages).~ There's also a contest going on, which you can learn about on the subscribers-only page. Why not check it out sometime?

​New Covers & Website & Mailing List (December 6, 2015)~ On the advice of some writer-type acquaintances, I decided to get more 'proactive' (a word from my corporate past) about my business. Didn't want to do it at first, but it seems an indie author has to do it all - writing, publishing, marketing, basically running a small business.~ And all of that needs to be done in a professional manner, if one wants people to take one seriously. Now that could mean beaucoup bucks that I don't want to spend (and coincidentally, don't have), so I decided it was time to bite the DIY bullet.~ I started with new, and hopefully catchier and more professional-looking, book covers. Instead of continuing to pay a graphic designer to do it, I got hold of GIMP (a free Open Source program similar to PhotoShop) and learned how to do it myself. I'll be creating my own book covers from now on, for both the e-books and the paperbacks.~ Most recently, I decided I needed a more professional-looking website - and again, I didn't want to pay a lot of money to have someone do it for me, so I did it myself. I appreciate the free Google Sites, which is what I was using before, but I just couldn't do what I needed to do with that. Many authors use WordPress, but that has a pretty steep learning curve and costs money if you want to use cool features (and if you can't figure it out & hire a WordPress developer, as many folks do). I decided to use Weebly, another popular option that's supposedly easier to learn and which allowed me to create a website for free. It was indeed relatively easy to learn, and though they also charge money for certain things, I don't need those things. Using a custom URL could still cost with Weebly (every month!), but I bought a domain through GoDaddy for one low price that I can make point to my Weebly site.~ Finally, I'm learning how to use MailChimp (another popular program with the indie author crowd) to generate signups for my mailing list - and again taking a cue from some fellow authors, I hooked up with PayPal so I could sell signed copies of my paperbacks from this new website. In both cases, I learned how to generate the embedded HTML to accomplish these goals - again, for free.~ It isn't all as fancy as some, but I think it's good enough for now - and it's inexpensive, which is important for me until my ship comes in. :) I hope you like what I've done - and now I need to get back to work on THE PORT FEE! It's all for naught without the books themselves, after all, isn't it?

The Reluctant Reporter (November 16, 2015)​I noticed I don't publish too much news here (that's right, I don't come here all that often either!). Most of my action seems to have gravitated to the Facebook group I started for readers and OBX fans. I also (very) occasionally send an update to those on my e-mail list. I'm on Twitter as well (@PortStarbird), but you can't say much there. The bottom line seems to be, if you want to know more about what I'm up to, you might want to consider joining my " ~ PORT STARBIRD ~ " group on Facebook. Be there or be square! :)

New Covers! (October 3, 2015)~ I got tired of paying someone else to create book covers for me, so I decided to learn how to do it myself. I figured, hey, I'm a smart guy, right? So I should be able to do this - and to my surprise, for once I was right! :)~ I also wanted to experiment to see if what I think are better-looking covers might attract more readers. We'll see how that goes.~ I'm still working on the print covers, but the e-book covers are available now. So updating this web site will be a two-stage process.

Free E-Book! (July 28, 2015)I wrote a short story (a "Tale" instead of an "Adventure") that's set in Ketch's Port Starbird world, and it's free everywhere! I did this so readers could get a taste of my writing before committing to the full-length adventures. It also happens to be a sort of Christmas story. Please feel FREE to take one at one of the purchase links!

Available on All Platforms! (July 28, 2015)All of Ketch's e-book adventures are now available everywhere online, not just at Amazon. The promotional tool carrots Amazon dangles to try to keep books exclusive to Amazon haven't worked impressively enough for me to continue in that program - and since I decided to make my free short story available everywhere in order to encourage folks to buy the full-length books, I figured those who read the story on non-Amazon platforms should be able to buy the books on those platforms as well. So those of you with Nooks and so on - go crazy! :)

Forgot to Mention... (April 19, 2015)My e-books are still only available at Amazon - for now. While I strongly disagree with Amazon's exclusivity requirement (which, incidentally, they *will* waive if you happen to be a superstar seller, but not for folks like me), they have some promotional programs that I want to take advantage of, especially with the new book coming out. So, another 90 days chained up out in the yard...

Port of Refuge! (April 19, 2015)~ The e-book version of Port of Refuge, the second Storm Ketchum Adventure, is now available for pre-order, and the print version is coming soon. Here's the pre-order link: http://bit.ly/1DUSfAj~ Finally... I wondered if I'd ever get this one done! A couple of the characters decided to deviate from my original plan along the way; but that's okay, I'm not holding it against them. :) I also got a few too many threads going at the beginning this time, and it took me a while to wrap everything up in a satisfactory manner. And not just in terms of time - this book is about 20% longer than Port Starbird.~ And now, on to the next one. But wait - there's still some production, distribution, and marketing to be done; plus spring is here and I'm already behind on the yard work... Well, I'll find a way. You know what they say, if you want to be sure something will get done, give it to a busy person. :)

Some More News (February 2, 2015)~ PORT STARBIRD was featured in the November 2014 issue of 'BOATING TIMES Long Island' magazine. Here's a link to the online version of that issue if you want to check it out:http://boatingtimesli.com/NY/2014/11/~ The book was also featured in the January 2015 issue of 'Red City Review' magazine, as one of their contest finalists. Here's a link to the online version of that issue: http://www.blurb.com/books/5890033-red-city-review~ I'm working hard on finishing the second Storm Ketchum Adventure, PORT OF REFUGE. I hope to make it available for preorder by the end of March 2015.

Writing Competitions & Sales (December 16, 2014)~ I entered PORT STARBIRD in several writing contests this past year. Here's how we made out:2014 Red City Review Book Awards - FINALIST2014 Best Kindle Books Awards - SEMIFINALIST2014 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award - QUARTERFINALIST~ Results are still pending for a couple of other contests.~ Meanwhile, there are now over 75,000 copies in circulation worldwide since March 2014 (mostly e-books, some trade paperbacks). My friend Gee Gee Rosell, owner of Buxton Village Books on Hatteras Island in the Outer Banks, has been moving a goodly number of those paperbacks. Thanks, Gee Gee!

And the Winner is... (December 16, 2014)~ Don Childrey! He was the one I picked out of a hat last night, and he's already received his $50 Amazon gift card. Don was born in North Carolina, and these days he's publishing trail guides. You can check out his books at donchildrey.com .~ This is for the contest that opened on July 6, by the way (see the detailed post below). Thanks again to all who entered!

Port Starbird Reverting to Amazon-Only Status (July 20,2014)~ I've been reading a lot about the new Kindle Unlimited program that Amazon just started. It's a subscription service like Scribd. You pay $9.99 per month and you can borrow bunches of e-books, regardless of how they're priced. It looks like there's a limit of 10 books at a time. ~ As a reader, is KU worth the cost? Probably not, for me. I don't think I have time to read a hundred or more books a year, even if it would only cost me $120. Only KDP Select books are available for the most part, which often don't include the books I want to read, so I'd rather buy the e-books I want, especially since many of them don't cost too much to begin with. Plus as an Amazon Prime member I can still borrow 1 e-book a month for free from the Kindle Lending Library, and I also get to choose 1 free Kindle First e-book a month if I want to. So who knows how many readers will actually sign up for this. ~ As a writer, is KU good for me? That's debatable (and a lot of indie writers are furiously debating it as we speak), and only time will tell. Drawbacks include a requirement for indie authors to be in KDP Select, which means I can only sell my e-book at Amazon, nowhere else (no Nook, no Kobo, etc.); also, the royalty amounts are still up in the air (Amazon will pay authors when 10% of a borrowed book has been read, and the payment will be the same as the payments given for books borrowed from the Lending Library - all of which is subject to how much money Amazon decides to put in a pool). ~ Meanwhile, some indie authors already in KDP Select are already reporting increased "sales" due to KU (probably due to the "first month free" deal Amazon is offering) - and if those sales count toward the Amazon rankings (no one seems to really know about that yet), then it could be a good thing for new or relatively unknown authors (like me). ~ I was in KDP Select for a 90-day term when I first published PORT STARBIRD, and then I dropped out so I could sell the e-book on other platforms in addition to Amazon. However, literally 99% of my sales have been through Amazon so far. So - I think I'll give KDP Select and KU a shot for the next 90 days and see what happens. This means I'll have to unpublish on Barnes & Noble (Nook), Apple (iPad), Kobo, etc. Then I can look at the results and re-think after 90 days.

2014 Review Contest (July 6, 2014)* * * WIN A $50 GIFT CARD * * *PORT STARBIRD is my first published novel, and it needs more reviews - so if you're willing to: 1) obtain the book from Amazon (buy the e-book or get it free via Kindle Unlimited or the Kindle Owners Lending Library, or buy the CreateSpace paperback); 2) post a brief and honest review of the book on Amazon; and3) e-mail me (garrettdennis.author@gmail.com) to identify yourself and your review,I'll enter you into a drawing for a $50 Amazon gift card, to be awarded when I have at least 25 valid entrees or around Christmas 2014, whichever comes first.~The review doesn't have to be fancy, lengthy, or unduly time-consuming for you (unless you want it to be); a simple sentence or two will do. And just to be clear, I'm not trying to buy 5-star reviews here. I appreciate constructive criticism, and I'd like your reviews to be honest. Whether they be good, bad, or indifferent, they will be appreciated - and they will all be eligible for the giveaway.~ I promise to not use your email for anything other than infrequent brief announcements (if any), such as new releases, arrests due to romantic comedy behavior, etc.; no spamming will be engaged in.~ If you've already written an Amazon review, please e-mail me and I'll automatically enter you in the drawing.Thanks!Garrett

Port Starbird News (July 6, 2014)~ The Port Starbird trade paperback is now available for purchase on Hatteras Island in the Outer Banks, coincidentally where the story is set.~ Visit Gee Gee at Buxton Village Books in Buxton, North Carolina, if you happen to be in the neighborhood sometime!

Port Starbird News (July 6, 2014)~ Hi! I'm Garrett Dennis, a new indie author. I published my first novel - PORT STARBIRD, a low-key mystery/adventure - in March 2014. It's the first in a series of planned Storm Ketchum Adventures. ~ Ketch is an armchair conservationist who retired young due to personal issues and emigrated to North Carolina's Outer Banks. He hates his name, loves his island, and generally prefers to mind his own business - but he's coerced by events into becoming an amateur detective of sorts, and gains a measure of redemption in the process.~ Port Starbird finished as a quarterfinalist in this year's Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest - a bit disappointing perhaps, but it still ended up in the top 5% out of thousands of entries, which I found encouraging.~ On the same day I learned Port Starbird would not advance further in the ABNA, I learned that it's a semifinalist in this year's Best Kindle Books Awards competition. We'll see what happens with that later...~ It's also entered in this year's Red City Reviews contest. No word on that yet, except for a 5-star review their judges gave it. More on that later...~ Meanwhile, back to work on Port of Refuge!

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